Absolute Justice, Kindness and Kinship — Page 60
The Animal Kingdom 59 awareness among dogs and wolves as well, who move in packs in the wilderness as hunting parties. These are but some examples in the evolutionary trend born out of same widening awareness of others’ feelings. Also at times of danger, elephants and wild beasts, zebras and deer etc. react as a group or class against the common enemy. It is here that we see a diffused awareness of belonging to one species or group widening its borders. As man evolved, the same animal tendencies grew stronger and more distinct in him. His sense of feeling and care for others no longer remained confined to his own family or to the human species, but spilled over into the animal kingdom of lower order as well. At this stage, one realises the need for a code of behaviour for mankind whose sensitivity has extended even beyond human borders. Ultimately, this plan of natural education and instructions resulting in material changes in the character-bearing genes of living animals, continued unbroken from one species to another higher species until it reached the stage of man. As nature broadened awareness in the evolving species of their surroundings, it also seems to have etched upon their character-bearing genes some of their behavioural patterns so that we can see specific behavioural patterns in each species as distinct from others. When one reaches the stage of man, one is astounded to discover that there is not just a drift of one or two notches between man and earlier life, but that there is